Abba

An ABBA reunion would only disappoint fans, former ABBA singer Bjorn Ulvaeus said. "I can understand that people are longing for ABBA, but deep in my heart, I know that they would be deeply disappointed if they saw us back up on the stage again today," he told Germany's Bunte magazine. ---------- Edited by Cara DiPasquale (cdipasquale@tribune.com) and Michael Morgan (mnmorgan@tribune.com)

By Ali Sawafta RAMALLAH West Bank (Reuters) - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Saturday he expects a joint government of his Fatah party and Hamas Islamists will be announced in two days, on June 2, setting a solid date for completing a unity deal the sides agreed to pursue last month. Meeting with French peace activists in the West Bank city of Ramallah, where his limited self-rule government is based, Abbas said: "We will announce the government the...

* ABBA gets own museum in Stockholm * Bjorn Ulvaeus scotches rumours of a reunion * Disco dancing, holograms and memorabilia on display By Alistair Scrutton STOCKHOLM, May 6 (Reuters) - The catchy tunes, outlandish costumes and shimmering boots that made ABBA a global phenomenon all feature in a new museum dedicated to the band, but rumours the exhibition may presage a reunion by Sweden's most famous export were quickly quashed. The permanent...

RAMALLAH West Bank (Reuters) - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday asked Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah to head a new national unity government which will bring together the feuding Hamas and Fatah parties. The announcement satisfies a five-week deadline following the groups' reconciliation pact on April 23, but the two sides have yet to publish a list of ministers drawn from independent technocrats, suggesting that disagreements persist. "This letter...

MALMO, Sweden (Reuters) - Denmark's Emmelie de Forest won Eurovision on Saturday before an international TV audience of around 125 million, clinching the coveted crown of euro-pop with a folksy ballad backed by a wall of fire, flutes and drums. The barefoot 20-year-old blonde stole the show as predicted by bookmakers with "Only Teardrops" in a final that saw 26 countries battle it out in the southern Swedish city of Malmo for the top prize in glitzy European pop music. ...

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called the Nazi Holocaust "the most heinous crime" against humanity in modern times, in an apparent bid to build bridges with Israel days after troubled peace talks collapsed. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected the overture on Sunday, saying Abbas's Palestinian power-sharing deal with Hamas, which led Israel to suspend the negotiations on Thursday, put him in partnership with an Islamist group that...

Nothing rocks harder than Swedish pop, and the voters at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame concur. ABBA, whose sunny pop invaded ears and radio in the '70s with "Dancing Queen" and "The Winner Takes It All," was among the bands to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 2010 class, it was announced Tuesday. If ABBA reunites for the induction ceremony next March, it would be the first time the members have performed since 1983. Also to be inducted and at least 20 times more...

People really like Abba again? They do, they do, they do, they do, they do. The Swedish quartet-the top-selling international pop act of the '70s-is a hot prospect once again, thanks to the embrace of currently popular bands and the budding popularity of a tribute band, Bjorn Again, from Australia. Before each of its recent concerts, Seattle's Candlebox piped Abba's hit "Dancing Queen" over the P.A.-in its entirety. U2 performed the song during some shows on its most recent world...

Some guilty pleasures survive simply as convenient punching bags. Menudo? Milli Vanilli? The William Shatner solo album? But when the jokes are at the expense of ABBA, they're inevitably told with affection, because only a curmudgeon could resist those songs. Even without a major theatrical production to draw attention to their work, the quartet would still cast a benevolent shadow over today's pop music from the dawn of the Euro-disco age. The sound of these mid-'70s pop auteurs--four Barbie and Ken dolls who became...

So what are you waiting for, oh ABBA-loving dancing queen? A personal invitation from Bjorn and Benny? Sorry, they're much too busy counting their kronas on that private island somewhere off Stockholm. But "Mamma Mia!" is ba-ack. Does your mother know? There's a reason this ABBA-infested affair has sold more tickets here than any other show in Chicago over the last few years. It's accessible, warm, witty, progressive, tuneful, unpretentious and highly...

'MAMMA MIA! THE MOVIE' . It's funny what you buy completely onstage and resist completely, or nearly, on-screen. Case in point: "Mamma Mia!" -- the ABBA-fueled stage phenomenon that has now become "Mamma Mia! The Movie." Of course I never miss a Meryl Streep musical. On-screen she sang in "Silkwood," "Ironweed," "Postcards From the Edge" and plenty in "A Prairie Home Companion." Onstage Streep put her pipes to work on Brecht and Weill's "Happy End"; years ago I heard...

It has been 22 years since ABBA redefined the term "guilty pleasure" with the album "Arrival." Though its future as a karaoke-bar classic is assured with such songs as "Dancing Queen" and "Knowing Me, Knowing You," ABBA's flawed monument to the pleasure principle has attracted countless worshipers, ranging from Marshall Crenshaw to Erasure. It's difficult to predict just who, if anyone, will be covering the music of the Backstreet Boys 22 years hence, but here's betting...